Yvette Cooper has for the first time used the term “Islamophobia” to describe the actions of some rioters behind the current violence on Britain’s streets.

The Home Secretary condemned far-Right rioters who targeted mosques. They did so despite there being no evidence the suspect in the Southport killings was linked to the Muslim community.

It follows a backlash from Labour MPs who had criticised Ms Cooper and Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, for not having already described the unrest as Islamophobic.

The term currently has no single agreed meaning but Labour has previously signalled its support for defining it as “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”.

Ms Cooper was asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain why Islamophobia had not already been used by the Government when discussing the violence.

She replied: “You’re right that there has been a range of different things driving this, including far-Right extremism.

“We have certainly seen some targeted attacks on mosques and that clearly reflects Islamophobia and people shouldn’t be targeted for their faith or for the colour of their skin.

“We’ve also seen some looting, some response of local criminals just getting involved at the periphery on streets as well… None of these people speak for Britain.”

On Sunday, the Home Office announced that extra police and security forces will be deployed to protect mosques under new emergency security measures.

Appearing on the same programme before Ms Cooper, Zarah Sultana said the Labour leadership must do more to call out hatred against Muslims.

Ms Sultana, one of the previously Labour MPs currently suspended for six months after rebelling over the two-child benefit cap, said: “This question about naming it as Islamophobia is really important because that allows us to shape our response.

“If we’re not identifying what is happening, the language that is being used, and what this is about, we’re not going to be able to address this fundamentally.”

Ed Balls, the Good Morning Britain presenter who is also Ms Cooper’s husband, pointed out his wife and Sir Keir had condemned violence on mosques as “terrible”.

When Mr Balls said: “I don’t know if they used the word ‘Islamophobic’.” Ms Sultana replied: “They didn’t.”

Pressed on whether she believed it was important to “control and manage” migration, she said: “I think it’s really important to reassure the communities that are most affected by the violence that we’re seeing.

“And I have to ask, why is there such controversy around calling it Islamophobic when we know Muslim communities are being targeted? We know the language that is being used. Why is it so hard to use that word? That is my question.”

There have been calls in the wake of far-Right riots last week to make Islamophobia a specific crime,  a longstanding demand of the Muslim Council of Britain.

But Conservative and Reform MPs have warned Sir Keir not to yield to those wanting to change the law, warning any new legislation would risk stifling freedom of expression.

Diane Abbott: Recall Parliament

Later on Monday, Labour MP Diane Abbott said “we don’t know” what ministers are doing to tackle the rioting as she demanded Parliament be recalled.

Asked whether the Government was doing enough, the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP told the BBC: “We don’t know what they’re doing. That’s why we need Parliament so they can be questioned on it.

“This is an extraordinarily grave situation. You’ve got people trying to burn down hostels where asylum seekers are cowering. You’ve got people attacking black and Muslim people on the street.

“We need to be able to question ministers on what exactly is being done and we want to speak up for our communities. These are racist anti-immigrant riots, and we need proper debate and proper analysis in the House of Commons.”

Ms Abbott, the first black woman elected to the Commons, added that “unless there is a serious analysis of what is happening” she believes “there is no sign of these anti-immigrant incidents abating”.

A Whitehall row has broken out over whether employees can wear “fetish gear” following complaints about a transgender civil servant.

Staff at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have reportedly objected to the workwear choices of Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale, who is a trans woman.

The row is believed to have prompted Baroness Jenkin, a Tory peer, to table two written questions in Parliament about fetish clothing and bondage.

It was not immediately clear whether Lady Jenkin, who was approached for comment, tabled the questions in relation to the row surrounding Ms Tweedale.

Ms Tweedale, 58, is one of two co-chairmen of the LGBT+ Civil Service Network and helped to establish the first transgender network in the department.

She is said to regularly wear low-cut black corsets, fishnet tights with high heels and a gothic choker with a pentagram when she attends the office.

‘Gothic evening wear’

One source told the Mail on Sunday, which first reported the row, the attire looked “almost like fetish gear”.

“At a stretch it looks like gothic evening wear but really it’s very strange,” they said.

“If you worked in a bank or any office job, you couldn’t wear that kind of stuff, whether you’re a woman or a man… It’s a highly inappropriate attire to wear.

“There is an expectation [of] people in their role and that they would look appropriate to do that role.”

The Civil Service Code states that mandarins should “always act in a way that is professional and that deserves the confidence of all those you deal with”.

While many departments do not have specific dress codes, past guidance has specified the need to “present a smart or professional appearance” at work in at least “some instances”.

A written question submitted by Lady Jenkin last week read: “To ask His Majesty’s Government what is their policy on civil servants wearing fetish clothing in the workplace.”

A follow-up question published two days later added: “To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they consider Bondage, Domination, Sadism, and Masochism to be a protected characteristic within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010.”

It is not the first time Ms Tweedale has prompted controversy in the department.

Last year, civil servants wrote to Peter Schofield, the permanent secretary at the DWP, warning of the “chilling effect” of gender ideology.

“Lesbians and women generally in the department are being silenced in the workplace and our rights are being undermined,” the letter said.

‘Ideological takeover’

Ms Tweedale was singled out specifically amid claims she had played “a key role in the attempted ideological takeover” of the department.

The diversity ambassador has previously told civil servants who work in schools that children demanding puberty blockers should matter more than their “parents’ will”.

She also claimed the belief that sex is binary is not “the modern scientific view”, saying: “There are as many genders as there are individuals because we’re all unique individuals.”

In an online lecture given in October last year, Ms Tweedale said: “What really gets me is when you’re challenging a trans child’s knowledge of who they are and say that parents take precedence.

“That poses a big danger to women and girls because it challenges Gillick competency… it’s very clear, if a child is old enough to understand the consequences of the medication and treatment they are asking for, their will takes precedence over that of the parent.”

Writing on her X account, Ms Tweedale said in 2021 that gender-critical trade union members – who assert the primacy of biological sex – “make me laugh”.

During a row over Labour’s position on transgender issues the same year, she wrote: “I stand with Emily Thornberry. One of my best friends is a man who quite definitely has a cervix.”

The DWP and Ms Tweedale were contacted for comment.

One of Damilola Taylor’s killers who led police on a high-speed moped chase has been spared jail by a judge so that he can “show real responsibility” to his son.

Ricky Johnson Preddie was just 13 when he and his younger brother Danny stabbed Damilola, 10, to death as he walked home from the library in Peckham, south London, in 2000.

Preddie had previously been disqualified from driving until 2033 after he reversed into PC Natalia Trzeciak on the pavement to avoid a stop in Wembley, north-west London, in 2019.

The court heard he was on his way to West Middlesex Hospital to seek “urgent medical care” when police spotted him riding his cousin’s moped, which had already been reported for speeding offences.

They signalled for him to stop but Preddie, now 37, roared off down Chiswick High Road near Harrow, hitting speeds of 50mph through 20mph residential zones.

He weaved through a group of pedestrians on their way to a local football match as the chasing officers shouted at them to get out of the way.

Preddie careered through two sets of red traffic lights, then made an abrupt U-turn after being boxed in by a set of temporary road works and police cars.

He then crashed the moped into a riverside wall and jumped over the embankment before leaping 20ft into the water below.

‘He’s in the river’

The body-worn footage played to the court shows a policeman telling his fellow arresting officers: “Guys, he’s in the river, he’s in the river.”

Preddie then appears around the corner trudging through the shallow waters and offering no resistance to the arrest. He is heard telling officers that he has “just come out of hospital” and appears in the footage wearing a catheter.

Prosecutor Harriet Palfreman said: “On March 2 2024, officers noticed a blue Yamaha XMX – the motorcycle was travelling along Chiswick High Road in the direction of Kew Bridge Road.”

The court heard Ms Palfreman say that the police noticed that the Yamaha XCX had been previously reported for speeding offences. “They followed directly behind,” it was said.

“The vehicle went through a red light and made off at accelerated speeds of 50mph in an area which had a speed limit of 20mph.

“The vehicle continued, whilst being followed by a police officer, and went through another set of red traffic lights situated at temporary road works.

‘Lost control’ of the moped

“At this point, he has made a U-turn and headed back up the high street, during which time he was blocked by both temporary road works and lanes marked by the police cars.”

Preddie then “lost control” of the vehicle by “crashing it into the side of the road”, according to Ms Palfreman.

“He subsequently jumped over the road in an approximately 20ft drop into a river bank, and having run along the river and river bank he was detained at 2.50pm and arrested thereafter,” Ms Palfreman said.

For sentencing purposes, Ms Palfreman also directed the court to a previous dangerous driving offence committed by Preddie in 2019, in which he caused “serious injury”.

Natalie Turner, defending Preddie, told the court that her client was “bleeding from his catheter” at home and his decision to evade the police was borne of “panic” and “adrenalin”.

“He was on his way to the hospital because of complications he had received from this operation,” she said.

‘Panic and adrenalin’

“He knows that he should not have driven – of course he was disqualified. His account, as he’s put forward in the pre-sentence report, is that panic overtook him in that moment.

“He stated that the panic and adrenalin overtook his rational thinking at the time, and given the opportunity again he would not make the same decision as he did on that day.”

Ms Turner added that Preddie only “jumped into the reservoir” because he “wasn’t aware there was a long drop”.

She said he has a five-year-old son and was “very anxious to return to being a presence in his life” after spending 151 days remanded in custody.

Miss Recorder Amanda Pinto KC, sentencing Preddie, said that he was responsible for a “very serious piece of very bad driving”.

“You are 37 years old, you have 60 offences on your record before now,” the judge said.

‘People were put at risk’

“You were travelling at 50mph in a 20mph speed limit, and to say that the streets were crowded with pedestrians going to the football match nearby is an understatement.

“I was shocked to see how many people were put at risk from the way you were driving: you went through two red lights and you did a U-turn knowing perfectly well you were being followed by the police.

“The fact that nobody was hurt was sheer luck for you.”

She said that this offence, in tandem with the incident in 2019 when he “reversed intently so that an officer was crushed”, indicated a “pattern of complete disregard for anyone else but you when you are driving”.

Preddie was then sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years.

Early guilty plea

He was given credit for his early guilty plea and was told by Ms Pinto that the suspended sentence was an opportunity to “show real responsibility to your son by being there for him all the time”.

Preddie, of Penge in south-east London, admitted driving a motor vehicle dangerously, driving while disqualified and using a motor vehicle without third-party insurance.

He was also sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment suspended for the other driving offence and given an obligatory 12 months disqualification from driving.

He was also ordered to complete 30 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and 240 hours of unpaid work in the community.

A biomedical scientist who called her Portuguese neighbour a “Spanish whore” and “slag” during a row over a fire alarm was reported to police for a hate crime.

Kelly Madden launched a foul-mouthed rant at her neighbour after drinking “an entire bottle of cheap rosé by accident”, a disciplinary hearing was told.

She was charged by the police and handed a caution for the “racist slur”, before being suspended from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) by a tribunal.

Now, after a review hearing, Ms Madden has been struck off after a panel concluded that that was the only way to “protect the public”.

‘I just wanted her to stop screaming’

She was reported to police by her neighbour, a young Portuguese woman, following an argument the pair had in July 2020 in Norwich in when Ms Madden set off fire alarms in her building by mistake. She had activated the alarm “preparing soup” on a hot day, a disciplinary hearing was told.

In a statement, Ms Madden said: “The fire alarm activated the other fire alarms and my neighbour became extremely agitated and was shouting in the hall and on the landing.

“I told her there wasn’t a fire and apologised, which I always do when the alarm activates accidentally.

“She was hysterical and I was drunk on a bottle of wine so we had an argument at the top of the landing outside my door and I called her ‘a Spanish slag’ and told her to go away if she didn’t like it.

“I also stuck my fingers up at her because I just wanted her to stop screaming outside my door. She then called the local police and accused me of hate crime.”

While she accepted she should not have shouted at her neighbour, Ms Madden added: “Ultimately I’m not her mother and I didn’t realise it was illegal to call someone a ‘Spanish whore’”.

‘Drunk entire bottle of rosé by accident’ 

Ms Madden was suspended from the HCPC for nine months in March 2022 by a panel which described her behaviour as “outrageous”.

Her suspension was then extended further by three review panels before a final hearing.

She previously blamed her neighbour for “initiating” the argument and claimed she had “drunk an entire bottle of cheap rosé by accident while I was cooking soup and baking bread”.

Addressing this misconduct hearing in person, Ms Madden told them she had completed 13 courses, one of which was anger management, diversity and safeguarding.

Having reflected on the incident, she claimed she was experiencing a “perfect storm” of challenging circumstances at the time – the Covid-19 pandemic and living in a shared house and health conditions – but admitted she had “completely mishandled” things.

She said she had not realised that the slur was racist at the time, and that somebody at her workplace had “dared” her to use it towards her neighbour.

‘Fundamentally incompatible with being a registered professional’

Ms Madden, who said she feels “deeply ashamed of her conduct”, insisted: “I know that I’m not a racist.”

However, the most recent panel concluded: “There has been no evidence of real change since the final hearing in March 2022, or any evidence that the concerns underpinning her impaired fitness to practise have been overcome.

“It was not clear from her evidence that there has been any material change of position, or a proper appreciation and understanding of the gravity of her actions.

“Although she has expressed her remorse for, and accepted, her wrongdoing, the panel was concerned about the reason given as to why she had made the racial slur – that it was a ‘dare’ from colleagues at work.”

They ruled that members of the public would be “concerned” if professionals such as Ms Madden “were able to practise without restriction”.

It added that her efforts to carry out suggestions from other hearings had been “woeful” and that the progress made by her since the last hearing was “negligible”.

The panel ruled that this lack of engagement and remediation over a two-year period was “fundamentally incompatible with being a registered professional”.

It concluded that the “only sanction that would adequately protect the public and serve the public interest” was one of a striking-off order.